When you go to the presence of Allah, what reply will you give Him?

When you go to the presence of Allah, what reply will you give Him?”[1] Talhah ibn `Ubaydullah too expressed dissatisfaction on the nomination and said, “You have imposed `Umar over the people as caliph and ruler. You know fairly well that with you around how much hardship he was putting them to! Now he will have total authority to do what he wished to do!

What reply will you give to Allah when He asked you questions about the people?”[2] It has been the attitude of the democratic regimes to beat the drums about the peoples’ right to elect their representatives. But when they are elected, they keep aside the people’s rights and do what suits their own interests. Then the democracy gets restricted to one or a few persons only. The democracy of Saqifah Banū-Sa`idah came to such a pass.

In about two years and half it got restricted to two or three persons! If the process of nomination is accepted, we shall have to acknowledge that the selection of the caliph is not determined by the opinion of the populace. Even if Abū-Bakr was the people’s representative, he was not given the authority to nominate his successor unilaterally. In no democratic regime such an authority is ever given.

Even if Abū-Bakr expressed his choice, it was only to `Abd al-Rahman ibn `Awf and `Uthman and none else. One of them thought it futile to oppose the nomination and the other wholeheartedly supported the nomination to reap the benefits in the future! The opinion of two persons cannot be termed as the opinion of all the people.

If he really wanted advice of the men of wisdom, he could have consulted `Abbas ibn `Abd al-Muttalib about whom the Prophet (a.s) had said that he was his uncle and his ancestors’ representative. Even `Ali Ibn Abi-Talib (a.s) was available who had been with the Prophet (a.s) from the beginning of his Annunciation. They had an excuse that he was not invited to come to the Saqifah of Banū-Sa`idah because he was preoccupied with the last rites of the Prophet (a.s) at that time.

But for this nomination process Abū-Bakr had no excuse why he avoided consulting `Ali (a.s) on this very important matter. It is surprising that `Ali (a.s) was consulted on all important matters like the ghazawat etc, and his wisdom was praised by [1] Talkhīs al-Hubbayr, Page 348 [2] Tārīkh al-Tabarī, Vol 2, Page 621 everyone, including the new coterie, but now he was totally forgotten in this very vital decision.